It was in the year 2000, right after graduating with a bachelor’s in Fine Arts from Pakistan’s most

prestigious art school, that I was thrown headlong into the world of historical archives. Until then a
latent urge which had surfaced in my art work as nostalgic, wispy swirls of yearning for the
unfathomable and seductively glorious past, my initiation as a novice researcher unleashed a passion
that has grown exponentially as the years roll on.

My assignment revolved around unearthing alumni and faculty belonging to the Mayo School of
Art(details), and discovering art works made by them. The Mayo School of Art, which has been the
National College of Arts since 1958, was founded in 1875 (although this date is slightly controversial-
it may have been earlier), and it was my duty to gather historical items for the 125th celebrations of
the college (my college).

Branches of my family have been settled in Lahore for over 200 years. So it was not a surprise when
my paternal grandfather, on one of his trips to the city, and after admonishing me to never go into
portraiture after graduation (on religious grounds), imparted his youthful love for drawing and
shared a prize certificate awarded by the YMCA just down the road from my college. He
remembered the Mayo School well, and had been wishful of attending it, but in true South Asian
tradition, his parents waved away his interest as a passing fancy and encouraged him toward the
more lucrative (and more socially acceptable) profession of banking (the fact that one of his uncle’s
was the owner of the Australasia Bank must have been a deciding factor).

Having grown- up in the surroundings of colonial Lahore, living on Mc Leod Road and then the newly
emerged Chauburji Gardens, attending Central Model School (beautiful building- see link) and
Government College (as was the norm of the children of elite and merging families at the time), my
Dada must have crossed the Mayo School a million times in his youth. One day he asked if he could
accompany me to college- he wanted to see the plaque upon which are painted (in gold) the names
of all the principals to have headed the Mayo School (starting with J. L. Kipling- father of Rudyard). It
was then that I discovered my grandfather’s youthful admiration for the daughter of the illustrious
(fearsome and controversial) Samarendranath Nath Gupta(details). Imagine a rather austere and
ascetic pater recalling how he and the boys would line up at the gate of Government College to
watch Kalyani Gupta make her daily entrance. This sharing of information did not go down well with
my grandmother. But it was a treat to catch a glimpse of a youthful and impressionable young man,
so very different from the grandfather we had grown up knowing. The tale does not end here but
rather, grows more intriguing and complex.

It was revealed that Kalyani married a distant relative (through marriage) of ours’ (and further fueled
grandmother’s ire). I couldn’t believe it- call it coincidence or fate- but I had met the lady under
discussion several times. And could well believe her charm and elegance, as stated in “The Vertical
Woman”, BC Sanyal’s(details) autobiography, which I had been reading as part of my research on the
Mayo School. BC Sanyal(book) is one of India’s most revered artists and founders of the
Lalitkala(link) Academy. He was a teacher at the Mayo School, and had fallen in love with Kalyani,
desiring to marry her, but (again in true South Asian tradition) the daunting father would have none
of it and firmly snuffed the embers of passion short by dismissing one his most promising faculty
members. The SN Gupta personal file is full of praises and recommendations for Sanyal until the
time that coincides with the discovery of the love interest.

When in 2001, I visited Delhi (pictures from the trip to be added), I had the good fortune to meet
Bhabesh Chandra Sanyal (who was celebrating his 90th birthday the day of our visit) and informed
him of Kalyani’s marriage whom he thought had been to an Englishman (which was half true). He
was quite taken aback with the news that the gentleman in question had in fact been Pakistani and
Muslim.

How my research on the Mayo School and my own family history came to be intertwined is
something I will never get over (even though a friend once said that this happens when generations
of communities reside in one place). In discovering BC Sanyal, I also discovered sculptures made by
him, that had been left at the Lahore Museum (pictures to be added). It transpired later that the
models had been entrusted with Dr. Aijaz Anwer’s(link) father, a friend of Sanyal’s and a prominent
political cartoonist, who placed them for safe keeping at the Museum in the violent clashes that
erupted in 1947. By the time Sanyal was settled enough to store them, they had been added to the
Museum’s inventory and could not be returned.